The Yellow Umbrella

In the middle of the metropolis stands the zoo, in the center of which sits the monkey and child. A visitor and his little girl lose their yellow umbrella in the monkeys' arena. When the umbrella opens up, the monkeys take off, Mary Poppinsstyle. They soar beyond the city, over mountains and waters, through a storm, andwith the umbrella as a boatjourney down a winding river, over a waterfall and into the jungle where they are greeted by their own kind. This is a wordless tale of a family reunion that occurs thanks to an all-purpose contraptionthe umbrella. The monkeys' odyssey from civilization to their own place of contentment is simply articulated by Drescher's two-color pictures. The cross-hatching and crabbed ink lines produce offbeat approximations of familiar forms. Ages 2-7. (August)